Sao Paulo police use tear gas on protesters six days before World Cup opener

Protesting workers beaten back by police in violent scenes just six days
before Brazilian city due to host World Cup opening match

By Agencies

2:55PM BST 06 Jun 2014

Police in Sao Paulo fired tear gas and beat back striking workers with batons during a subway strike that has caused chaos in the Brazilian city just six days before it hosts the opening match of the World Cup.

The protesting workers had been picketing and blocking subways in the second day of the indefinite strike, which has raised fears of unrest in the Brazilian mega-city during the global showpiece tournament.

Tear gas was used to break up a demonstration blocking access to at least one metro station, while a third of the city’s subway stops remained closed early in the morning.

More than 125 miles of traffic choked city streets.

The strike delayed several Fifa officials for over two hours as they travelled to a conference ahead of the World Cup.

Traffic jams could also complicate access to Brazil’s final test match before the tournament, a friendly against Serbia in the Morumbi Stadium on the city’s leafy west side on Friday night.

World Cup organisers have urged fans to use public transportation to stadiums on game days at 12 host cities, but just a fraction of the transportation projects promised for the tournament have been delivered.

Frustration with those broken promises and the ballooning cost of new World Cup stadiums contributed to widespread protests that drew over a million Brazilians into the streets during a warm-up tournament last year. The government is braced for another wave of demonstrations, but protests so far this year have lacked the spontaneous energy and scale of 2013.